Italy Part 1: Florence

Spring break at UCD is two weeks long, and I spent the first half of it in Italy. Italy was the number one place I wanted to make sure to visit while abroad, and I'm so glad I got to go. I went with most of the same people that I've been traveling with this whole time, and words cannot even describe how much I loved going here. 

We started our journey in Milan, where we stayed for less than a day. The small bits of the city that I saw were not as exciting as I was expecting them to be, and I probably would have liked Milan a lot more if I spent more time there. We got to see the Duomo, which was beautiful and only a hint of what beautiful architecture would follow in the other places we went.

The Duomo in Milan

That night we took a bus to Florence, and the trip there was quite difficult (and that's an understatement). The bus ride was about two hours long, and our tickets said that we would be dropped off at a train station in the center of Florence. Instead, the bus driver dropped us off on the side of the highway about 100 yards from a tollbooth, said to us in broken English, "walk 10 minutes that way and you'll be in Florence. Good luck!", and drove off. For a while we all just stood there wondering what to do. It was 11:00 at night, pouring rain, and we had no idea where we were. Fortunately, a couple in their early 30s who just happened to pull over near us called us a taxi, which came shortly thereafter and took us to the apartment we stayed in. Even though this was pretty scary, we were all okay and now find it hilarious. If there's one thing that I learned though, unless you feel like walking half a mile along the side of a highway, never ever ever ever take a bus from Milan to Florence. 

We stayed in an apartment in Florence for three days, and I absolutely loved it there! While we were in there, we walked everywhere and explored the city by foot. We walked from one side of the city to the other by crossing the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge that spans the Arno River. There were lots of outdoor vendors and shops on the way to the bridge and lining the bridge itself, and when we weren't busy looking at the views or taking pictures, we were trying to convince the vendors that we did not want to buy leather jackets, umbrellas, bracelets, or bird seed.

Sitting on the ledge of the Ponte Vecchio

The apartment we stayed in was less than a 10 minute walk from the Duomo, and I thought this Duomo was even more beautiful than the one in Milan. We climbed up 463 steps to the top, and the view from up there was spectacular. I know that sounds so cliche, but I can't think of any other words to describe it. The sun came up for just a little while when we were up there, which made the hike up completely worthwhile.

View from the top of the Duomo in Florence

More of the view from the top of the Duomo in Florence

 

Piazza di Michelangelo

We got to see more amazing views of Florence when we walked to the Piazza di Michelangelo. You can see the Duomo from the Piazza di Michelangelo, and it was really cool to get such a great view of the city from two different spots. Unfortunately the sun was not shining while we were here. but walking to the top of the Piazza di Michelangelo was still one of my favorite things we did in Florence.

Florence is in Tuscany, and no trip to Tuscany would be complete without a wine tasting! On Sunday we ventured out of the city and into Chianti, where we got a private tour of the Montefioralle vineyard. Montefioralle is one of the smallest vineyards in Chianti and produces only 10,000 bottles of wine a year. On the tour we learned about how wine is made and got to try seven different types; my favorite was their Chianti Classico from 2009. I didn't really know anything about wine before the tour, so it was cool to learn more about it and meet the owners of this small, family-run vineyard.

The owner of the Montefioralle vineyard made all of us appetizers to go with our wine

Montefioralle vineyard

Montefioralle vineyard, about 5 minutes before a thunderstorm

Although we got to do a lot of awesome things in Florence, some of our plans were foiled because of the rain. We couldn't go hiking or on a bike tour like we wanted to, and a botanical garden we wanted to visit was closed. We also didn't get to see the David statue because the museum it's in was closed for renovations. However, the food there more than made up for all of the struggles we had with the bus and the rain. Everything I ate in Florence was delicious, and I think I said "This is literally the best thing I've ever eaten!!!!!!!" after every meal. The pasta, pizza, bread, prosciutto (which I normally don't like but for some reason loved in Italy), and of course, gelato, was all so good! We got gelato at least once a day, and I tried eleven flavors in total (vanilla with Nutella swirl, espresso, dark chocolate, stracciatella, cheesecake, hazelnut, lemon cream, vanilla and cookies, Nutella, dark chocolate raspberry, and white chocolate chip, in case you were wondering!) between Milan, Florence, and Rome. I am not joking when I say would fly back to Florence just to eat the spinach ricotta ravioli at Dante's or the prosciutto, mozzarella, and sundried tomato sandwich at All'antico Vinaio. 

Florence was a nice, relaxing vacation, and on Monday night we took a train to Rome. Like Florence, Rome was absolutely amazing, and I'll write about it in another post. 

On another note, I would like to wish a very very happy birthday to my mom!! Mom, I love you so much and hope your birthday is as wonderful as you are!